Frau Becker's Children Out for a Walk.
One of the greatest charitable organizations in Berlin is a day nursery run by Frau Hofrat Becker. The nursery is where the working wives of soldiers can leave their babies each day while they are at work. No children can be left with Frau Becker unless the mother shows a certificate that she works. The children can be left at five o'clock in the morning and they are kept there until night.
Frau Becker has five of these homes located in different parts of Berlin, and I have visited all of them. In each home she has about one hundred and fifty children—little babies from six weeks old up to four years of age. Some of the children seemed very happy but others were pinched looking little things who looked as though the battle of life was too great for them. The babies are given milk and bread for breakfast and at noon a warm stew.
Besides taking care of the babies, Frau Becker gives the older children who go to school a warm noon-day meal, and after school she gives them coffee or bread. Then she provides these larger children with employments and amusements so they will be kept off the streets. The larger girls sew and knit, and the boys learn songs and games. All the helpers are voluntary, and they receive no pay.
Berlin Youngsters Going to a Fresh Air Camp in East Prussia.
Nearly every family in Germany of the better middle class have what they call a Kriegskind, or a "war child." They take a boy or girl of some poor family and give them their meals. The family where I visited in Dresden had had a little girl since the beginning of the war. When the war broke out, Hilda was nine years old, and you cannot imagine what a change has taken place in her during the three years. She has now very nice manners, she is very clean and she has learned to sew and play the piano. Hilda is one of a family of eleven children. The father is a Landsturm man in the war, and he makes thirty-eight pfennigs a day.
One of the greatest charity collections is the gold-collection. The Empress started this collection by giving a lot of gold ornaments, and many people have followed her example. The story goes around in Germany—personally I doubt if it is true—that the Crown Princess gave to the collection all the gold plates that King Edward of England had given her for a wedding present, and when the plates were melted down they were all found to be plated.
WHAT GERMANY IS DOING FOR HER HUMAN WAR WRECKS.
The word "cripple" is a word that hurts, and in Germany when one speaks of the men who have lost arms, legs, or eyes, they say Kriegsbeschädigte, which means hurt or damaged by the war. It has a softer sound.